This might get a little longwinded so bear with me 🙂
How many of you remember arguing with your parents when you were a teen and desperately wanted to color your hair?
My daughter used to drive me crazy with these requests.
“Please, Mom, Stephanie’s mom let her do it.”
Or my personal favorite.
“You just don’t understand.”
No amount of talking would persuade her that it was a fad and it would pass. And I refused to allow her to change that beautiful golden-brown she’d been blessed with at birth.
Stale-mate.
Years later she became a mom and when her son wanted his hair shaved on the sides and colored blue on the top, she bought removable dye and did it for him.
The lesson?
Times change. People change.
What does this have to do with writing you say?
Maybe nothing, but recently I’ve been hearing lots about author branding and when I delved further into what this mysterious identity might mean, this is what I found.
From a Google search:
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.
business – The Basics of Branding – Entrepreneur
I love this! You’re such an inspiration, Jacquie! I wish more authors would heed your advice. Be who you are. 🙂
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Thanks Mrs. N. It’s easy to fall into the advice rut, the problem is finding your way out so that you can enjoy the drive 🙂
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So true, it took a few years for us to get out of the advice rut and write our own way. At the end of the day, it’s about following your instinct and trying new things. Who knows what you’ll discover? 😉
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A few years ago I only ever read thrillers with 90% of them being either murder or litigation. Now I’m more attracted to the colourful covers, the ones endorsed by other bloggers or ones that are plastered on posters on the London Underground… this has led me to read different genres… I think I’ve fully fallen into the current fad!
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Lol, nothing wrong with that, Chloe 🙂 I write romantic suspense, but have hosted some cozy mystery authors lately whose covers drew me right in to-to the point that I’m now trying my own cozy!
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Oooh, I love cozy mysteries and can’t wait to hear more, Jacquie! 🙂
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Thanks, I’m having fun with it 🙂
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That’s the key isn’t it? To have fun while writing. So many people giving me advice told me writing is serious business. “You’re not allowed to have fun.” LOL! Guess we’re doing it wrong, eh? 😉
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Great analogy, Jacquie. This plays right into what I was talking about today. Trends change, tastes change… that’s one of the reasons I like being a multi-genre author. It does complicate branding, but the flexibility is worth it. (Great pic of your grandson, by the way.)
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Thanks! I know we’re often told to stick to one genre, strengthen our ‘brand’, but I enjoy reading different types of books so why wouldn’t my readers enjoy that from me? I’m kind of hoping by hitting different genres in my writing I gain a wider variety of readers 🙂
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